A pair of brown bears play in the fresh snow at the Bronx Zoo Wednesday in New York City. Parts of the metropolitan area saw as much as 13 inches of fresh snow. / Associated Press

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News Journal

Our latest wind chill advisory is scheduled to expire at noon, and should do so without a problem. But don’t worry, there will likely be another one soon.

The latest clipper system dropped a quick inch of very powdery snow across Richland County overnight, and there has been some drifting, but high pressure is now moving into our area, so any remaining snow today should just be of the nuisance variety as the new air mass works to squeeze out what moisture it can find.

Of course, it will continue to be cold Thursday, with a forecast high temperature of just 10 degrees, 23 degrees below normal for the date. Some clouds and some sun should be the rule on sky cover. Expect temperatures to drop below zero again early Friday morning, especially if skies remain clear overnight with this cold-friendly snowpack.

Our winds will begin picking up again tonight, and especially Friday as the first of several rounds of low pressure arrives. While temperatures are expected to reach the mid-teens for highs tomorrow, and then the low 20s over the weekend, snow will be the headline as three clipper systems pass through north central Ohio during the period.

Snow showers are likely overnight Friday, again on Saturday and then again on Sunday, so by the time it’s all said and done we should have a fresh 2 to 4 inches of snow to shovel.

Following those episodes, a fresh sliver of the polar vortex will once again pay us a visit early next week, with temperatures that will be at least as cold as those we experienced just after the first of the year. Our forecast is calling for a low temperature of 12 degrees below zero Monday night, followed by a high of just 3 above Tuesday. But we’re getting used to this, right?

Meanwhile, in climate change news, the European Union has proposed getting out of its binding targets for renewable energy production after 2020 because it doesn’t feel the economies of the EU countries can handle them without severe sacrifice.

This follows moves by Canada and Japan to step back from their climate-change obligations for the same reasons, and the U.S. never signed on to any in the first place.

Given this, continuing to argue about whether climate change is happening is kind of beside the point if nothing is going to be done about it.

Below are the weather statistics for Wednesday, Jan. 22, at my location 4 miles north-northwest of Fredericktown, Ohio: